A 23-year-old man today admitted stealing $3,500 from his employer.

Zane Hodgson, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Magistrates’ Court to stealing $1,900 in cash from the purse of Denise Priscilla Brown-Trew, owner of Eve’s Cycles in Dockyard, along with three cheques, which he then cashed for a total of $1,750.

Crown prosecutor Loxly Ricketts told the court that shortly after 5pm on July 6 last year, Ms Brown-Trew took a client upstairs in the Eve’s Cycles office, leaving Hodgson alone downstairs, where she had left her purse.

Moments after going upstairs with the client, Hodgson asked if he could leave work early, which he was allowed to do.

But after returning downstairs, Ms Brown-Trew noticed that $1,900 in cash had gone missing from her purse, along with 17 personal cheques.

Mr Ricketts told the court that Hodgson was arrested “after an intense and prolonged effort” by police.

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo remanded Hodgson in custody and delayed sentencing until May 14, when Hodgson will be tried for several other offences.